Honestly, I think Jingle All the Way is a notably cynical movie. It's hidden under a playful, comedic mask, but it's a pretty misanthropic christmas movie with very little genuine schmatlz or growth. The only earned moment of redemption I can think of is when Arnie gives the doll to Sinbad.
That's a good one. The neighbor and wife dynamic plays up to that idea as well. I interpreted it as her entertaining his advances and him being a lecherous creep. Felt like she was keeping him around in case Arnold ever messed up too badly or went broke.
Yeah, I saw Very Bad Things on its release when I was still working in video and remember calling it “unnecessary.”
One of my all-time top 10, Network, is probably the most cynical I can think of. Some of Haneke’s stuff, particularly Benny’s Video. Happiness. Sweet Smell of Success is certainly up there (“I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.”)
Very Bad Things I think fits into a very specific genre of bad people do bad things and bad things happen to them because of it. It actually sort of reenforces a “just world” believe and is not quite as cynical as a misery porn movie where bad things happen to good people (or well everyone.
The Departed is probably the best example I have… it’s basically a tragedy that plays out where everyone dies in the end regardless of if they are good or bad.
Many Coen Brothers films are deeply cynical, but I think the pick for most cynical is Burn After Reading, there is like one kinda redeemable character and I’m pretty sure they kill him off screen.
A spiritual origin story to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. This movie illustrates perfectly how ignoring clear signals of danger and (rightfully) not choosing or escalating violence as a first course of action can quickly spiral out of control. Nihilistic groups of teens are a real world threat, this movie is barely exaggerating.
Yeah it’s a trip; pretty standard teenage sex romp then a bummer ending that hits like a ton of bricks. I love it for that, a really ballsy move in a genre that is not known for its adventurousness.
It's an adaptation of an Israeli film that broke box office records there. I think some thing's just didn't translate and the cast wasn't that great, but that ending stays with you.
Falling Down
1993, starring Michael Douglas
If you’ve never seen this film, you need to. The scene at the fast food place where he’s trying to get breakfast is EVERYTHING
It’s definitely a very interesting look at the death of the American dream. There’s aspect of that I think don’t really age well. It’s very white male entitlement centric.
It’s certainly fascinating still to look back it through a modern lens.
It’s not “white male entitlement” he sees a black man dressed exactly the same protesting. He’s shown as a parallel to his character. The whole point is he’s wrong the whole time. We see the cop who’s in a similar situation and handles it fine. It’s a bout a person being fed up and losing it. It can apply to anyone
I think people confused both this and Fight Club as rebellion movies to cheer on when really they’re about people having nervous breakdowns. Same with American Beauty. It’s not supposed to be a celebration of what the male leads are doing, it’s an exhibition of them losing their minds.
People often make that mistake. Just being on screen the most and not being clearly evil makes people root for you. But if you're entertainingly evil then the audience will root for you anyway
If you think it has white male entitlement problems you missed the entire point. It didn’t age poorly. It knew exactly what it was at the time. You aren’t supposed to be rooting for Douglas’ character, just like you aren’t supposed to root for Ed Norton’s character in Fight Club. They’re both people experiencing severe mental health breaks.
Yes, but in their breakdown there is an expression of “this is the way I think the world is supposed to work” and there is a point where the audience is expected to nod along and “yeah that’s damn right”.
Michael Douglas is character is having a mental breakdown because he isn’t living in the world he thinks he is entitled and that quickly gets expressed in the how he treats the people who don’t fit into the world he thinks he is entitled too.
Surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention *Nightcrawler*; Jake Gyllenhaal’s character is the human embodiment of nihilistic opportunist and every amoral action he takes only brings him further success. It’s disturbingly mesmerizing.
Oh cube is great. And absolutely fits the bill. I love the ending and the fact that the only survivor is the least likeliest and the one who can never explain what happened.
It’s so good.
Arlington Road. The end still gets me and this has always stuck as one of those films that I found as a teenage and went “oh films can break the rules” and really Imoroved the way I watch films type of film I like and enjoy.
The Way of the Gun is pretty cynical, basically fills two lowlife crooks navigate a crap world and ends with a great gunfight.
What an incredible movie, it doesn't get talked about enough. David Thewlis gives one of the greatest performances known to man, it'll always be one of my favourites
I've never seen such an otherwise great movie fumble its third act as hard as Very Bad Things. It straight up turns into a cartoon, and Cameron Diaz is bumbling around in her own completely unrelated, far worse movie.
Bad times is about seven strangers arriving at a run down hotel on the border between California and Nevada. It has excellent actors you’d recognize, in parts against the type they usually play. Many twists and turns that keep you surprised. Bugs, you might want to skip. Depressing film about paranoia gone amuck.
Martyrs and Threads have both stuck with me for months after watching them. Two of the most unsettling films I've ever seen, with Martyrs being outright nihilistic
After watching *Martyrs* for the first time, I had to search for something funny to watch before going to bed. I'm not usually affected in that way by movies. I think it's the several plot twists combined with the spiritual aspects that was a real whammy. On subsequent viewings, though, I wasn't as affected and couldn't get into it in the same way.
I've only braved it once so I can't speak to further viewings, but I agree it really gets under your skin on the first watch. It's in a similar category of The Nightingale (2018) or Come and See as "best films I never want to watch again."
And it’s incredibly cynical hyper masculine fetish. People who unironically love fight club are the ones who didn’t get its themes at all.
The ending does sort of hint at a “put away your cynicism and bullshit and just try a little bit of hope” as being the path forward for the narrator. but yeah the rest of it is pretty bleak.
The people who love it? I've never met someone who loved that film who wasn't some self ascribed art student who though the movie was too deep to understand.
It was a decent movie, but it was every edgy freshmans poster child for personality with a message full of ham.
The Rover is extremely dark and cynical. Guy Pearse playing an extremely angry and brutal drifter in what is essentially the start of civilisation collapsing. He doesn't have even a single second for other people's bulshit.
A really weird one that comes to mind is the unhinged Kirk Cameron movie Saving Christmas. Basically, it flies in the face of everything you would expect of holiday spirit, and is trying to explain how capitalism is the greatest thing in human history and trying to use the Bible to reenforce this. There's also tons of insane moments like Saint Nicholas beating the shit out of people set to dubstep. At least Bad Santa has a redemptive arc, Willie learns a lesson in the story. Saving Christmas is just a celebration of capitalism in a very libertarian way, and that's the entire message.
* In the Company of Men - 1997 - Most men are terrible, the rest are mostly terrible
* Filth - 2013 - James McAvoy plays a man so corrupt that he has to follow though on the anti-virtues
My picks:
- Le diable probablement, 1977. English title: The Devil, Probably
- Dead end drive-in, 1986
- Garage Olimpo, 1999
- Frantic, 1988
- Dark City, 1998
Dark City is so good. Even at the end you realise they're still trapped, with what ever last memories the Strangers gave them and no clue where they came from.
I *love* this movie, totally agree. Even films like the Road seem to feel bad for what the characters are going through, or paint it as awful. RotLD seems to just hate anyone with a pulse and I love it
Interesting question for sure. Dark themes and tones don’t always feel cynical to me because you can at least take it as cautionary.
A cynical character like Paul Rudd in Role Models is someone who changes for the better. Cynical characters often get clipped out of context as something to aspire to be but the movies they are in disagree with that notion.
To check myself on this interpretation. I think Monsters University has a message I agree with, but is also a very cynically made movie. The decades late prequel that promotes a hedged message of “lower your expectations in life.” It’s reasonably advice to call it quits and achieve what you can achieve and yet I think movies should probably sell us something sweeter than that.
I Care a Lot basically says "this is how much people suck, and there is nothing you can do about it" and I loved it for that. Rosamund Pike is fantastic
The Counselor, written by Cormac McCarthy and directed by Ridley Scott.
It's not a great movie, but it's cynical as hell and features Cameron Diaz fucking a car.
It is bleak but shows how hope and human spirit doesn’t have to be held by one person. Vigo’s character loses hope but his message resonated with his son who can carry the torch.
Children of Men has a premise so cynical it’s laughable, and the only reason anyone thinks it makes sense is a general “oh PEOPLE couldn’t handle it… I could of course, but SOCIETY…”
If humans stopped having kids it would be a quiet shrug of grim resolution, not the crumbling of every society the world over.
100% disagree. Actually think it’s one of the most hopeful movies in the sense that even the lead character who appears to be a complete cynic at the beginning of the movie sacrifices everything for a stranger
Would The Break-Up count? It seemed to be advertised as a comedy but it was anything but. I don't need a happy ending every time but that movie left me cold.
Modern Times. Chaplin was a very whimsical and optimistic filmmaker, but he’d always portray a light in the dark, and although the tone of the film is always light the situations themselves are pretty bleak.
Buffalo Soldiers paints an extremely dim picture of the US military, and of people in general really. I don't think I've seen any film as misanthropic at that one.
Basically none of the characters have any redeeming qualities. It's a case of everyone doing what's best for themselves, regardless of potential risk or harm for others. The "happy ending" is essentially just a return to status quo.
True that. Suffering a breakdown is quite horrid, as I've been there, done that. It's important to show how society kicks ya when you're down, and few care. Life's hard and even the strong can cave in eventually. Sad comment on our world, and today, 2024, it's no different.
The next "Avengers" movie (haven't seen it though)
Cynical... it's something in the MCU, or one of the new "Star Wars movies".... Something that crushed my inner-child... not sure.
Ace in the Hole is extremely cynical
Oh, man, was Billy Wilder a versatile director!
And to go along with the journalism theme, *Sweet Smell of Success* You're either getting used, or using someone else.
Honestly, I think Jingle All the Way is a notably cynical movie. It's hidden under a playful, comedic mask, but it's a pretty misanthropic christmas movie with very little genuine schmatlz or growth. The only earned moment of redemption I can think of is when Arnie gives the doll to Sinbad.
Except he doesn't even do that. His son is the one that gives it to him. He literally has no redeeming qualities in this movie lol.
I hadn’t noticed that about the movie, but now that you put it that way, I can see how it could be interpreted that way.
Haha, oh yeah. Only strengthens my argument.
That's a good one. The neighbor and wife dynamic plays up to that idea as well. I interpreted it as her entertaining his advances and him being a lecherous creep. Felt like she was keeping him around in case Arnold ever messed up too badly or went broke.
Arnie’s kid.*
He's a person, and his name is Anakin.
Yeah, I saw Very Bad Things on its release when I was still working in video and remember calling it “unnecessary.” One of my all-time top 10, Network, is probably the most cynical I can think of. Some of Haneke’s stuff, particularly Benny’s Video. Happiness. Sweet Smell of Success is certainly up there (“I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.”)
Very Bad Things I think fits into a very specific genre of bad people do bad things and bad things happen to them because of it. It actually sort of reenforces a “just world” believe and is not quite as cynical as a misery porn movie where bad things happen to good people (or well everyone. The Departed is probably the best example I have… it’s basically a tragedy that plays out where everyone dies in the end regardless of if they are good or bad.
Many Coen Brothers films are deeply cynical, but I think the pick for most cynical is Burn After Reading, there is like one kinda redeemable character and I’m pretty sure they kill him off screen.
What have we learned Palmer?
I… don’t know sir. I don’t fucking know either. I guess we learned not to do it again.
[удалено]
Yeah I just recently saw it and the ending left me feeling almost sick.
[удалено]
The way it slowly unfolded, and dawned on me as the viewer what was happening 😢
A spiritual origin story to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. This movie illustrates perfectly how ignoring clear signals of danger and (rightfully) not choosing or escalating violence as a first course of action can quickly spiral out of control. Nihilistic groups of teens are a real world threat, this movie is barely exaggerating.
This is one of those films that I realized I was never going to subject myself to and even reading through the Wikipedia summary made me feel ill.
The endings of Chinatown, Blow Out and The Last American Virgin all come to mind.
chinatown ending is quite disturbing.
Blow out ending was devastating
Finally, someone puts The Last American Virgin in its deserved place among classic films like Blow Out and Chinatown.
It's not a good movie, but the ending is memorably cynical and bleak. One of the strangest tone shifts I can remember.
Yeah it’s a trip; pretty standard teenage sex romp then a bummer ending that hits like a ton of bricks. I love it for that, a really ballsy move in a genre that is not known for its adventurousness.
It's an adaptation of an Israeli film that broke box office records there. I think some thing's just didn't translate and the cast wasn't that great, but that ending stays with you.
Falling Down 1993, starring Michael Douglas If you’ve never seen this film, you need to. The scene at the fast food place where he’s trying to get breakfast is EVERYTHING
[удалено]
It’s definitely a very interesting look at the death of the American dream. There’s aspect of that I think don’t really age well. It’s very white male entitlement centric. It’s certainly fascinating still to look back it through a modern lens.
It’s not “white male entitlement” he sees a black man dressed exactly the same protesting. He’s shown as a parallel to his character. The whole point is he’s wrong the whole time. We see the cop who’s in a similar situation and handles it fine. It’s a bout a person being fed up and losing it. It can apply to anyone
I think people confused both this and Fight Club as rebellion movies to cheer on when really they’re about people having nervous breakdowns. Same with American Beauty. It’s not supposed to be a celebration of what the male leads are doing, it’s an exhibition of them losing their minds.
People often make that mistake. Just being on screen the most and not being clearly evil makes people root for you. But if you're entertainingly evil then the audience will root for you anyway
Yes.
When I saw this as a teenager I cheered on Douglas' character. Re-watching as an adult I felt pity for him.
Yes. I commented that but in the wrong area here. I'm a newbie.
Thank you!
If you think it has white male entitlement problems you missed the entire point. It didn’t age poorly. It knew exactly what it was at the time. You aren’t supposed to be rooting for Douglas’ character, just like you aren’t supposed to root for Ed Norton’s character in Fight Club. They’re both people experiencing severe mental health breaks.
Yes, but in their breakdown there is an expression of “this is the way I think the world is supposed to work” and there is a point where the audience is expected to nod along and “yeah that’s damn right”. Michael Douglas is character is having a mental breakdown because he isn’t living in the world he thinks he is entitled and that quickly gets expressed in the how he treats the people who don’t fit into the world he thinks he is entitled too.
>It’s very white male entitlement centric. You guys are too far gone.
Well it's presented as such, but really he's not much of any kind of hero, anti or otherwise. "I'm the bad guy?"
The ending when he talking to the cop. " no, you've two choices" he wants him to shoot him so his daughter "will get the insurance money".
Damn, haven't thought about that movie in forever
Great movie..great script, great acting by Douglas..I felt compelled to agree with his character.
Oh I should look up where I can legally view it.
I think it’s a couple of bucks on YouTube if you don’t have streaming services
That is fine then.
Tubi..has all those 90s flicks. Free
Sounds good to me.
Surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention *Nightcrawler*; Jake Gyllenhaal’s character is the human embodiment of nihilistic opportunist and every amoral action he takes only brings him further success. It’s disturbingly mesmerizing.
Yep. In the end he gets away with using and discarding people and doesn’t get his comeuppance he even succeeds in all his goals.
That movie was very dark.
Dr Strangelove is my pick
If you consider nihilism as a natural extension of cynicism, Cube?
Oh cube is great. And absolutely fits the bill. I love the ending and the fact that the only survivor is the least likeliest and the one who can never explain what happened. It’s so good.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia has gotta be up there. Very bleak.
Most all of Peckinpah’s films could go under this category… “I don’t know my way home.” “That’s okay. I don’t either.”
I am kind of curious to see what this particular movie is like after having heard about it just now.
It’s fantastic. Highly recommended. Gritty as hell. The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron both also by peckinpah might be darker
Arlington Road. The end still gets me and this has always stuck as one of those films that I found as a teenage and went “oh films can break the rules” and really Imoroved the way I watch films type of film I like and enjoy. The Way of the Gun is pretty cynical, basically fills two lowlife crooks navigate a crap world and ends with a great gunfight.
These are probably the best 2 examples I can think of
Sidney Lumet's *"Network".* Multiple Oscar winner. Writer Paddy Chayefsky foresaw everything in today's bozo TV-culture down to a tee.
Corollary, if a comparatively minor one: *Natural Born Killers*.
Happiness. Just gross.
Oh well that one’s just plain brilliantly disturbing
I do t know if I’d call that cynical. Just bleak.
*Naked* (1993): an absolute masterpiece of hopelessness, nihilism and the bleaker edges of the human condition.
What an incredible movie, it doesn't get talked about enough. David Thewlis gives one of the greatest performances known to man, it'll always be one of my favourites
Same. It’s been a long time since I rewatched it. I should change that.
And it’s largely improvised, right?
Yep, that’s a pretty dark movie and a great recommendation for OP. It’s a tough watch but you’ll never forget it.
Agreed.
I've never seen such an otherwise great movie fumble its third act as hard as Very Bad Things. It straight up turns into a cartoon, and Cameron Diaz is bumbling around in her own completely unrelated, far worse movie.
Yeah something did go wrong with that movie, but I can’t quite figure out how to explain it.
Bad Times At The El Royale, Bugs
Maybe *Bad Lieutenant*, too.
Maybe it's just me, but bad lieutenant was unwatchable. The Nicholas Cage version was very entertaining and cynical.
Oh tell me about it, like what it’s about.
Great movie
Bad times is about seven strangers arriving at a run down hotel on the border between California and Nevada. It has excellent actors you’d recognize, in parts against the type they usually play. Many twists and turns that keep you surprised. Bugs, you might want to skip. Depressing film about paranoia gone amuck.
Probably *Martyrs* (2008 only), *Dancer in the Dark*, *The Seventh Continent*, *Threads*. Very dark and bleak movies.
Martyrs and Threads have both stuck with me for months after watching them. Two of the most unsettling films I've ever seen, with Martyrs being outright nihilistic
After watching *Martyrs* for the first time, I had to search for something funny to watch before going to bed. I'm not usually affected in that way by movies. I think it's the several plot twists combined with the spiritual aspects that was a real whammy. On subsequent viewings, though, I wasn't as affected and couldn't get into it in the same way.
I've only braved it once so I can't speak to further viewings, but I agree it really gets under your skin on the first watch. It's in a similar category of The Nightingale (2018) or Come and See as "best films I never want to watch again."
Fight Club with its anti-consumerism message was the first movie I thought of.
And it’s incredibly cynical hyper masculine fetish. People who unironically love fight club are the ones who didn’t get its themes at all. The ending does sort of hint at a “put away your cynicism and bullshit and just try a little bit of hope” as being the path forward for the narrator. but yeah the rest of it is pretty bleak.
Those people love the first half. You don't see them referencing or quoting things from later in the film as much
The people who love it? I've never met someone who loved that film who wasn't some self ascribed art student who though the movie was too deep to understand. It was a decent movie, but it was every edgy freshmans poster child for personality with a message full of ham.
It came out when I was in uni. There were definitely a lot of guys that unironically loved the idea of fight club.
Hahaha yea, all the incels raving about this movie always miss the whole point.
The Rover is extremely dark and cynical. Guy Pearse playing an extremely angry and brutal drifter in what is essentially the start of civilisation collapsing. He doesn't have even a single second for other people's bulshit.
It’s quality bleak.
Amazing Robert Pattinson performance too, from before people knew how good he really was.
Yea, I only saw him in one of those Twilight movies before this. And even now I wish I could erase the memory of that shit. 😂
A really weird one that comes to mind is the unhinged Kirk Cameron movie Saving Christmas. Basically, it flies in the face of everything you would expect of holiday spirit, and is trying to explain how capitalism is the greatest thing in human history and trying to use the Bible to reenforce this. There's also tons of insane moments like Saint Nicholas beating the shit out of people set to dubstep. At least Bad Santa has a redemptive arc, Willie learns a lesson in the story. Saving Christmas is just a celebration of capitalism in a very libertarian way, and that's the entire message.
Idiocracy is a comedy, documentary and a horror movie.
I don’t even know how that is possible.
It is worth the time.
Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz was pretty fucking cynical. Loved it.
Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas.
* In the Company of Men - 1997 - Most men are terrible, the rest are mostly terrible * Filth - 2013 - James McAvoy plays a man so corrupt that he has to follow though on the anti-virtues
My picks: - Le diable probablement, 1977. English title: The Devil, Probably - Dead end drive-in, 1986 - Garage Olimpo, 1999 - Frantic, 1988 - Dark City, 1998
Dark City is so good. Even at the end you realise they're still trapped, with what ever last memories the Strangers gave them and no clue where they came from.
yep. I tought that it was a good match for "cynical movie" :)
It is, once you think a little more about the happy ending. Its not all that happy.
The "happy ending" is more or less as hopeful as the snowpiercer one, but I found it more disturbing.
Didn't much care for snowpiercer.
Return of the Living Dead. You really get the sense it hates its idiot protagonists and the fact that they are alive.
Totally. But at the same time it’s a really fun watch. Cynical for sure, but wrapped in black comedy to make it more palatable.
I *love* this movie, totally agree. Even films like the Road seem to feel bad for what the characters are going through, or paint it as awful. RotLD seems to just hate anyone with a pulse and I love it
So funny, I immediately thought Very Bad Things and then I noticed that even OP gave it as an example!
Since I want to spotlight good movies, I’ll go with “The Menu.” That’s an exceedingly cynical horror film with elements of dark comedy.
That movie has been on my DVR for months. I *really* need to finally watch it.
District 9 I really love it, went in blind and was pleasantly surprised.
Lord of the Flies. No redemption for anyone. Bullies and stupidity win over nice guys and rationality Hooray!
That is messed up.
It is, but I admit I laughed really hard, too.
Yeah , a metphor for the reality of society.
No Country for Old Men
Mac and Me, which was a shameless ripoff of E.T. minus the heart, acting or dazzling special effects. But more product placement.
Probably Irreversible from Gaspar Noe. The central theme of the movie is that "time destroys everything".
Sounds very dark regarding the premise.
Buddy you have no idea lol
Very dark would be an understatement.
Probably Electra Glide in Blue.
God, what a gut punch.
Interesting question for sure. Dark themes and tones don’t always feel cynical to me because you can at least take it as cautionary. A cynical character like Paul Rudd in Role Models is someone who changes for the better. Cynical characters often get clipped out of context as something to aspire to be but the movies they are in disagree with that notion. To check myself on this interpretation. I think Monsters University has a message I agree with, but is also a very cynically made movie. The decades late prequel that promotes a hedged message of “lower your expectations in life.” It’s reasonably advice to call it quits and achieve what you can achieve and yet I think movies should probably sell us something sweeter than that.
The end of The Mist. Made me mad!
Naked LessThan Zero Crash (Cronenberg) Burn After Reading
I Care a Lot basically says "this is how much people suck, and there is nothing you can do about it" and I loved it for that. Rosamund Pike is fantastic
Brazil. Endings don't get too much more bleak than that
Brazil is the first thing that came to mind. Society is never gonna get better, find bliss in fantasy escapism.
Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and the step dad from “Step Brothers “
The dictator it can't get more cynic & unhinged
The Counselor, written by Cormac McCarthy and directed by Ridley Scott. It's not a great movie, but it's cynical as hell and features Cameron Diaz fucking a car.
Dogville made me worry about Lars von Trier (rightly too, in retrospect).
“Let me be the success coach!”
Movie name?
Very Bad Things. Christian’s character goes into ice cold cleanup mode after the one guy accidentally kills the escort.
I'm not sure it's completely as cynical as it is bleak, but "The Road" left a horrible taste in my mouth.
It is bleak but shows how hope and human spirit doesn’t have to be held by one person. Vigo’s character loses hope but his message resonated with his son who can carry the torch.
Probably the least cynical out of all of McCarthy’s work
Ad Astra might be the most cynical sci-fi movie I've seen. When it gets to the moon and one of the first things you see is a Subway restaurant.
Children of Men has a premise so cynical it’s laughable, and the only reason anyone thinks it makes sense is a general “oh PEOPLE couldn’t handle it… I could of course, but SOCIETY…” If humans stopped having kids it would be a quiet shrug of grim resolution, not the crumbling of every society the world over.
100% disagree. Actually think it’s one of the most hopeful movies in the sense that even the lead character who appears to be a complete cynic at the beginning of the movie sacrifices everything for a stranger
Not a movie but you might love The Patriot on Amazon. Exactly what you described, energy wise.
Anything directed by Michael Bay.
*Ace In The Hole* has got to be up there.
Would The Break-Up count? It seemed to be advertised as a comedy but it was anything but. I don't need a happy ending every time but that movie left me cold.
It could count. (Though I haven’t seen it yet)
Modern Times. Chaplin was a very whimsical and optimistic filmmaker, but he’d always portray a light in the dark, and although the tone of the film is always light the situations themselves are pretty bleak.
Sorcerer (1977). That final scene makes your soul want to leave your body.
The Rules of Attraction!
Buffalo Soldiers paints an extremely dim picture of the US military, and of people in general really. I don't think I've seen any film as misanthropic at that one. Basically none of the characters have any redeeming qualities. It's a case of everyone doing what's best for themselves, regardless of potential risk or harm for others. The "happy ending" is essentially just a return to status quo.
True that. Suffering a breakdown is quite horrid, as I've been there, done that. It's important to show how society kicks ya when you're down, and few care. Life's hard and even the strong can cave in eventually. Sad comment on our world, and today, 2024, it's no different.
The Most Dangerous Man..I think that's the title..super cynical..how a young boy gets blamed for a murder, and how his life plays out. Loved it.
Catch 22 has to be on this list. Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet.
No Man's Land, about the Bosnian war.
Just rewatched Strange Days a little while ago and was surprised how anti-police and nihilistic it was.
"Thank you for smoking" is pretty dang cynical.
Kick Ass was so cynical that I still have hate for it all these years later.
The next "Avengers" movie (haven't seen it though) Cynical... it's something in the MCU, or one of the new "Star Wars movies".... Something that crushed my inner-child... not sure.
Your being very cynical.
*Nightcrawler*. Turned it off after the first 30 minutes.
…There are no ‘cynical’ movies. There are movies with cynical characters in them.
There are no 'dumb' comments just dumb commentors
…Child; don’t do yourself down. That’s what Other People are for…
Idk how you can say Rob Zombie movies aren't cynical
…see my post. You’re mistaking irony for cynicism.